What Business Books Don’t Tell You About Starting a Company (And How to Handle It)
When you start your own business, you would be naive to not at least expect some challenges. The obvious ones are the hustle of finding clients and steady income, the stress of wearing every hat, the uncertainty of a fluctuating pipeline. Will this really work? Will people pay me actual money for my skill set?
But there are other, more emotional, challenges that no one really prepares you for. Three years into Shape & Scale, and these are the plot twists we didn’t exactly see coming.
1. Partnership Runs Deeper Than We Imagined
Running a business with a co-founder is unlike any other working relationship. It’s not just about dividing responsibilities or collaborating on projects, it’s about sharing your financial life, your bad habits, and your triggers.
We know things about each other that only our spouses know. It’s oddly intimate for a work setting, and that level of trust has made us stronger as a team, but it’s also emotionally demanding. Every decision, whether it’s pricing, client selection, or investments, is shared.
This closeness is both a strength and a challenge. It means the wins feel bigger, but the hard days hit harder too. No one really warns you how much emotional depth and vulnerability it takes to sustain a business partnership.
2. The Blurred Lines Between Work and Life
People love to romanticize the flexibility of entrepreneurship. And it’s true, we’ve built a life with more autonomy than we ever had in traditional roles. I can take a random Friday afternoon off without asking permission. I can choose who I work with and how I structure my day.
But time off is never completely “off.” If a client has a major launch while we’re on vacation, we’re still on call. Taking a full week away from Shape & Scale feels different than clocking out of a corporate job. The freedom is real, but so is the weight of knowing there’s no one else to pick up urgent items.
This constant blending of work and personal life has been one of the hardest parts to navigate. It’s not bad, it’s just a different kind of balance, one that requires constant adjusting.
3. Business and Personal Finances are Never Truly Separate
When your business is small, its financial health and your own personal finances are intertwined. There isn’t a neat line between “company money” and “personal security.” It’s all part of the same system. That can feel overwhelming, but it also creates a sense of ownership and accountability you don’t get anywhere else.
We’ve had to get comfortable having honest conversations not just about numbers and strategy, but about how those numbers make us feel (we know, we know, enough with the feelings).
But that’s because running Shape & Scale is just as much a part of our lives as it is our jobs. That’s why every win feels monumental, and every challenge feels close to home.
If you’re not careful, the losses feel worse than the wins feel good.
The Reward Outweighs the Risk
For all the stress, blurred boundaries, and emotional heavy lifting, there’s nothing quite like owning your own business. We get to choose who we work with, what kind of work we do, and how we spend our days. We’ve built something that reflects our values, our priorities, and our personalities, which is a level of freedom and alignment that’s hard, if not impossible, to find elsewhere.
The hard parts have made us better leaders, better partners, and better humans. Shape & Scale has been a crash course in resilience, but it’s also given us a sense of pride and ownership that makes every late night and tough call worth it. Three years in, we wouldn’t trade it for anything.
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